


Snapshots in Song

by owlmoose



Series: Fidelity [9]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Flash Fic, Random Song Challenge, Ten Songs Meme, Tumblr: imagineyourotp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 18:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlmoose/pseuds/owlmoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten songs, inspiring ten short fics about Sereda Aeducan and Alistair Thierin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Falling Star

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the variation of the ten random songs meme that was posted on the Tumblr [reimagineyourotp](http://reimagineyourotp.tumblr.com/post/52193393579/the-songfic-shuffle-drabble-game). Each ficbit has its own chapter. All are based on the Fidelity continuity, although some are AU. All song links go to YouTube and were working at the time the story was posted.

**[Qntal - Falling Star](http://youtu.be/lSFJeqWlHaI) **

Even after a year on the surface, Sereda avoids watching the night sky. Its vast blackness seems like the ceiling of an ancient thaig, until the pinpoints of distant light remind her how empty it really is. But Alistair loves stargazing, so she tonight snuggles against him, trusting his strength to keep her from flying away into space. She opens her eyes and looks up, just in time to see a bright streak against the blackness. "What was that?" she asks, tensing.

"A falling star," Alistair smooths her hair. "We make wishes on them. The cook at Redcliffe said those were the souls of dying stars, falling back to earth. A pretty thought, yes. A star's final act, blazing brightly before it burns out forever."

Sereda thinks of Riordan's last words to them, and shivers. She knows what her wish will be.


	2. Hold Back the Rain

[ **Duran Duran - Hold Back the Rain** ](http://youtu.be/CXkoNN0YzOo)

They struggled down the side of the mountain, Haven fast becoming another bad memory, Sereda's hand curled around a small pouch of ashes in her pocket. A cold wind blasted out of the valley and pushed them backwards for each step forward they took. Sereda glanced up and squinted through the icicles in her face. Were those distant cliffs red? Could they really be that close? She slipped on a stone, and Alistair caught her elbow: warm, solid. "Careful."

"Sorry." She steadied herself against his hand. "I just want to get to camp before the storm breaks."

"Right." Alistair glanced at the sky. "We should hit the valley within a couple of hours."

Sereda nodded, and forged forward. Best to hurry, even if she suspected that arriving at Redcliffe and awakening Arl Eamon would likely change things she did not want to change.


	3. Save a Prayer

[ **Duran Duran - Save a Prayer** ](http://youtu.be/fl4NxeauUYY)

"We can't." Sereda turned away. "It's like you said after the Landsmeet: this is bigger than both of us. We can't make it about what we want."

Alistair stopped her from leaving with a hand on her shoulder. "I know." She swallowed hard and closed her eyes. "I _know_." His voice dipped into a low, rough growl; she shivered to her toes. "And I don't care. Even if it's just tonight and never again. I've tried to keep my distance, and after this I will, but--"

Sereda pivoted on one heel; he looked down at her with eyes of fire. "This might be my last chance. I want it to be with you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AU for the Fidelity canon.


	4. Desert Rose

[ **Sting - Desert Rose** ](http://youtu.be/C3lWwBslWqg)

Alistair had heard the tales of the Anderfels' Blight lands, its deserts and steppes desolate beyond imagining. Beyond anything he wanted to imagine, anyway, he thoughts as he stripped off his heavy Ferelden furs while sun beat down on his head. Somewhere in those dark, rocky mountains was Weisshaupt Fortress and the First Warden. To whom even a king would have to answer for his actions when they involved the end of a Blight by... unexpected means.

Next to him, Sereda crossed her arms. "Ready to march into the mouth of the dragon?"

He looked down at her -- her rosy pink cheeks, her rueful smile. With Sereda at his side, he could face this. He could face anything. "Lead the way."


	5. Lorelei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired in part by the Dragon Age comics.

[ **The Pogues - Lorelei** ](http://youtu.be/ZfPlBBx0KIY)

He'd imagined the end many times, always the same: a tunnel deep beneath the surface of Thedas, surrounded by howling darkspawn, Sereda at his back, the rush of battle in their blood and the song of the taint in their ears. It was never like this -- not in a foundering ship at sea, tossed by storms, perilously close to the rocks. Vanished forever like Maric, vanished and she would never know....

"Isabela!" he bellowed, and the ship's captain raised her hand from its death grip on the helm.

"Get below decks!" she shouted back, a quick smile thrown over her shoulder. "I'll get you back to your dwarf girl. Never fear."

Alistair clung to the hope like a lifeline, the memory of her face like a talisman.


	6. Spider In My Room

[ **Spider in my Room - Barenaked Ladies** ](http://youtu.be/OLUGmWQgOhA)

"Yeaaaugh!" Alistair's bellow distracted Sereda from the trap she was disarming. "What... is THAT?!"

She peered forward, through the trees. "A giant spider, if I don't miss my guess." She poked the leghold trap with a stick; it snapped shut, rendering it harmless. "C'mon, we should take care of them."

Behind them, Morrigan snorted. "The big strong knight, afraid of a little spider?"

Alistair shot her a look of contempt mixed with terror. "Only the ones bigger than my head."

Sereda slapped the dust off her hand and pulled out her sword. "They get a lot bigger than that in the Deep Roads," she said. "Let's hope you never have to see them." Alistair shuddered, and she had to laugh. Guess not everything was different on the surface.


	7. What You Need

[ **What You Need - INXS** ](http://youtu.be/FoEPrbdfmT4)

Alistair's shoulders had been tense all day, as he'd led the party down the Kingsroad; after dinner, Sereda beckoned him into her tent. "Everything all right?"

Alistair shrugged. "Oh, no everything's fine. So excited to arrive in Denerim tomorrow, all of Arl Eamon's expectations in tow. Why should that bother me?"

Sereda hooked her finger under the collar of his tunic. "Sounds you need a distraction." She pulled him down and into a long kiss, and he wrapped his arms around her back, lifting her up, close into his chest, relaxing under her expert touch.


	8. Lonely No More

[ **Lonely No More - Rob Thomas (acoustic version)** ](http://youtu.be/l2kEBVyGW3s)

She, a princess, once lost everything she'd ever had. He, a stable boy, about to gain everything he'd never wanted. They, standing alone against danger and demons and assassins and political strife. Here, on the shores of Lake Calenhad, she leaned back against his chest, let him shelter her from the wind. She could shelter him from the winds of change, she knew, find someone else to take the throne he feared so much. But when he put his hands on her shoulders, strong and sure, she knew it was right.

"I'm with you, Alistair," she said softly. "Whatever comes next. You and me against the world, for always."

She turned to face him, arms around his neck, and he bent to kiss her, sealing the promise she made with one of his own.


	9. I Will Possess Your Heart

[ **I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie (radio edit)** ](http://youtu.be/PsCV61zsdtA)

That night, Sereda looked down at the rose in her hands, turning it around and around, considering its soft petals and the sweet words that had accompanied its presentation.

This was a terrible idea, she thought. He was a human, a bastard, of low social station, her comrade in arms. All the reasons she had spurned Gorim, and more besides. So why was she thinking about him like this? His face floating in his mind, his chuckle catching her notice, his battle cries a source of reassurance?

She folded the rose between the pages of the slim diary she carried, and slid the book into her pack, willing the thoughts away. For now.


	10. Full of Grace

[ **Full of Grace - Sarah McLachlan** ](http://youtu.be/L3sjSnhZJk0)

He stood in the frozen courtyard of Vigil's Keep, alone, eyes fixed on at the windows of her office; Sereda stared back at him through the curtains.

Their last parting had not been a pleasant one, marked by harsh words about responsibilities and expectations and the truth that Sereda had seen for months: that Alistair was, against all expectations, falling in love with his queen. She had walked out of the palace, hardened her heart, and tried to forget him. But now here he was, come all the way from Denerim, snow blowing around his feet. The least she could do, she supposed, was hear what he had to say, and she beckoned to him.

They met halfway, on the stairs down to the central hall; he swirled her into an embrace, and she buried her forehead in his chest. Not forgiveness, not yet, but maybe something like it.


End file.
